Sunday: Still More Painting

I realized as I was assembling the roof for House 1 that the roof and attic plane would show under the gables, and consequently should be grey, not the white I used as primer. I've already touched under the gables of the completed roof, but that was sort of a retrofit, and doing it right meant painting the others before starting assembly.


Since I was going to be painting all of the roof planes for Houses 2 and 3, I went ahead and painted some of the bits that will be needed for porches, like railings, the header for the porch, and the decorative corner trim where the sides come together.












Plus,  and this didn't escape my notice, having painted railings made possible finishing the roof of House 1 by installing the bit of railing on the small gable. Not having that in place has been bugging me. Of course, it's just a bit too big now, since the original measurements didn't account for the shingles (sigh), so as I was working on the railing, I realized I need to shave it a bit to make the fit just right. Or come up with another solution. Still thinking about that one... so it's built, but not attached. For now.

The rest of the day was working on putting in the window glass for House 2. Didn't quite finish and still need curtains. The "glass" is all cut now, at least, and putting it on goes fast. Still need to cut and attach the curtains, and then House 2 will be ready for assembly, I think, as soon as I figure out where to drill for the lighting and get that done. Oh, and paper the floors. That will be tomorrow, too, I think.

Slowly And Surely

There's another reason for keeping the houses in sync that came to me today as I was working on House 2, inserting the doors and windows and their frames/trim. As I do enough of these, I'm developing facility with some of the tasks, and it only makes sense to capitalize on that as I go. As soon as the shingles arrive, I'll go ahead and shingle House 3's roof, for example. I updated the instructions as I went including some of the things I've learned about what works and what doesn't. I'm not sure the instructions will ever have much use after this, but it seems a shame not to record the information while I have it. I certainly have lost a lot between the pilot house and now, though I thought at the time I was taking pretty good notes. Live and learn! I didn't quite finish all four sides of House 2, but I made good headway. 

One thing surprised me a bit: I kept discovering more places that needed to be trimmed in the grey and blue around the edges. The gables,for example, including those on House 1's already-assembled roof. After adding that trim to House 2, I went back and trimmed up  House 1. Good thing I ordered lots of extra Bristol board for the bandboard and highlight trim... it looks like I'll be needing it.  I'll be ready for House 3.

The color seems ok, if not great, so I'm plowing ahead. 

Still More Painting; Friday's Progress

Most of this day was spent painting and repainting. I haven't posted many pictures of that because of color fidelity on different monitors, but am now declaring victory on this. The current color has to be good enough, despite all my frustrations with it. On the blue lid is House 3 with the trimmed back wall (minus the sunroom) from House 1 sitting on top for comparison. On the red lid is the back wall from the pilot house, which is probably a better color match for the real house. It's distinctly more beige and less pink than the color is coming out here; the only question I have is whether the current color of the pilot house is a feature of aging. It's entirely possible it started out the color of my efforts here, and faded over time. Maybe.  Either way, it's going to have to do; it's time to move on. Next up:  applying the windows, doors, frames, etc. on these two houses. I'm doing that both to keep the houses relatively in sync with each other and because the "answer" hasn't dropped out of the sky yet on the best approach to the lighting and bay window assemblies. 

Because I was so fretted about having forgotten the proper assembly order for the small bay on Roof 1, I went ahead and assembled its counterpart for House 2. Forgetting, of course, to put the window frame, glass and trim in before gluing the wings on the bay. Sigh.  I managed to get them installed after the gluing without too much difficulty and will definitely make a note for the next one that the trimming happens before gluing on the wings, which happens before installing the entire assembly into the roof. 

Finally, Roof 2 is all shingled!  So, one foot in front the other, progress is becoming visible. Yay!

First Roof (Almost) Done!

The first steps.
 

In progress. 

Since I'm still musing about what to do about the paint color, and I haven't done anything yet to plan the lighting (or drilled holes in the bases for the wires), I reverted to assembling the first roof. I went with the Blenderm surgical tape, and am at least so far really happy with the results.  I did add glue to the ridge lines when I added the ridge caps in part for added stability and in part because the ridge cap weren't staying attached very well. 





  

Almost done!

It went together really smoothly with the tape. Of course it helps that, by now, I truly understand the roof and how it goes together. Everyone else (and especially eldest daughter) in my family has a great sense of spatial and geometric thinking. Take my word, it didn't come from me. She put together the first roof, and if she hadn't, I'd probably still be struggling over it. As it is, now I get it and was able to assemble this without much stress.

TA DA! (note missing railings in front of small gable)

I remembered (belatedly) the order of construction of the roof beneath the small gable on the front of the house.  For the NEXT house, I'll do it the easier, smarter way that will probably have a better result. Live and learn.

I didn't install the railings because they're not painted yet, despite all the painting I've done. None of the railings (the majority of which are part of the porch assembly) are painted yet. They're very fragile and I didn't want to lose or damage them. When I'm ready to do the porch, I'll paint all at once. This is the completed next  to the roof from the pilot house, which does have the railings in front of the gable. 

From the top. Yay!!

Nothing Photogenic Today

Because my left hand is still hurting and a bit swollen (inflamed tendon??) and the color situation is still vexing, today was a thinking-and-mulling day with not much to see. The roof for House 2 is inching along, and should be all shingled in another day or maybe two. I'm going to have to do some color touchups on the paint jobs on Houses 2 and 3, and need to think a bit more about what to do and how to do it. So that was a slow Wednesday with not much visible to show for it. Maybe more progress tomorrow?

Tuesday's progress

Since House 1 is advancing so well, and yesterday was so pleasing, it seemed time to bring the others along a bit more. The roof for House 2 got one more fairly large roof plane shingled (at some cost to my left hand; I must have been pressing too hard while holding strips to measure or something, as I've got a big hurt on the index finger).

Houses 2 and 3 are painted, though not without some serious pain with the color. Originally, I was only going to do House 2, but the color matching was such an ordeal that, once I got something close enough, I figured I'd better do both at the same time. It's a mystery why the color is so difficult this time, but at least the main part of that job is now behind me. House 3's paint job may need a bit of touching up here and there, and it's almost guaranteed that there's something or other I've forgotten to paint--but I saved some in the refrigerator. So there!

Monday's Improvements

The thing about something so small with so many steps is that progress is visible. I had a fair amount of work (the paying kind) that rudely interrupted my fun time Monday, and still inched things along.

As I worked on framing the windows and trimming the ones that aren't topped by bandboard--all 15 different window sizes and shapes--and the external doors (four different sizes and shapes), I reflected again about the fateful early decision to make this an architecturally accurate rendering, instead of simplifying. I'm still happy with the decision, and my, we've learned a lot about the house in the process. The small variations--from the bay that extends an extra 12 inches on one side to the alternating overlap of the siding--are an interesting testament to the time it was built and the quality of work that went into it. To the extent possible, we've portrayed it faithfully; the measurements are accurate throughout, including all the different windows and doors and the extension of the bay in the dining room, as well as the way the bay on the other bay connects to the porch and incorporates the external door. It makes it more complicated than probably anyone else would be interested in, and I'm not sure that we didn't go overboard here and there, but it will be as close to accurate as the scale permits.

Every window now has a window frame and "glass" and on two of the sides, the windows that will get "lace" curtains have them.  Here's hoping Tuesday's work is less intrusive and the actual vacation part can begin soon.